The 'real' woman, the transgender woman and the tampon ad

Sanitary product company Libra started 2012 off with a spot of controversy over a commercial aired in New Zealand last week.

The ad, which shows a 'real' woman and transvestite Sandee Crack side by side in a public bathroom mirror competing for womanliness has now been canned.

Spokesperson for Canberra advocacy group A Gender Agenda Peter Hyndal says the storm produced by the advertisement isn't just about depictions of transgender people, but about what it implies makes a real woman.

"The issue that a lot of transgender people had with the ad is in fact the same issue that a lot of women had with the ad," Hyndal said.

"The basis of the ad is an assumption that there are 'real women' and there are 'not so real women' and that there are particular kinds of things that women need to do which meet stereotypes of being a woman that make you more of a 'real' woman.

"The earlier part of the ad is about putting on makeup and about a competition to be the most attractive woman in the room.

"So there is a broader implication about women in the ad about gender stereotypes and a pressure to comply with them to be more of a woman."

666 ABC Canberra listener Leigh called in to say menstruation does not the woman make.

"I don't wear makeup and I've gone through change of life so I don't use those brands of tampons anymore," Leigh said.

"Does that make me a lesser woman than I am already?"

But on a positive note, Peter Hyndal said the advertisement had pushed transgender issues to centre stage.

"The most interesting thing to us about the advert is it's actually generated a whole lot of conversation around gender identity and around transgender issues," Hyndal said.

"I think tampons and transgender people kind of suffer the same publicity issue, they're not always topics often talked about over dinner or in public forums."

Listen to Ginger Gorman's full interview with Peter Hyndal below.

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The feminist movement spent decades campaigning around the idea that apart from the purely biological sense, there is no such thing as a "real woman". Women certainly have certainly been shaped in character and our objective political interests by our structural oppression, but this is neither intrinsically biological, nor what is meant by 'gender'.

The 'gender' characteristics that are ascribed to those born female exist to maintain our oppression by disguising it. Although women's subordination is not natural but the result of our current social order, 'gender' makes women's position seem natural. 'Gender' characteristics are not, however, natural. 'Gender' is socially-imposed and oppressive to women. Someone from a group unashamedly called "Gender Agenda" should not be regarded as a spokesperson for the cause of demolishing oppressive gender ideology.

Complaining that anyone should be portrayed as a "real woman" (which much of the anti-Libra campaign has in a de facto way) takes the feminist cause backwards.

And considering that oppressive 'gender' prescriptions for how the sexes should behave also deprive trans people of rights (in that they incur social punishment for violating them), I also don't see that this campaign helps the objective position of trans women. Complaining at even a suggestion that trans women don't menstruate (although of course the ad is about a drag queen) seems counter-productive at best.

The ad was, of course, pretty stupid. Understanding that most women of childbearing age menstruate does not make Libra geniuses, much less feminist, and I'm sure this is why I and many other women were put off by it. (In addition to the usual problem of these sorts of ads being rather racist.)

(I'm also unsure why the ad suggests that a drag queen would want to initiate a competition with female humans to be women. Perhaps, though, it is tongue-in-cheek, and certainly many drag queens seem pleased by the ad. The large amount of gaudy make-up worn by Crack makes it clear that he was portraying a drag queen rather than a trans woman.)

But the problem is not that it implies that post-menopausal women aren't women (after all - the slogan is "libra gets girls" - so what a ridiculous objection). Nor is it because it gets basic biology right by implying that most women of child-bearing age menstruate. (Transphobic!)

This *campaign against* the ad is undermining to feminism in ultimately reinforcing 'gender'.

Less of a knee-jerk reaction, and more thoughtfulness, would be helpful here.

Your copy states "The ad, which shows a 'real' woman and transvestite". Although the term "transvestite" is sometimes used in general parlance, there are large sections of the trans community that find this term offensive. In any event, by definition, Sandee Crack is not a transvestite. Check out her web site - she is a "drag queen" - a man purporting to be a woman for the purposes of entertainment. It's not hard fact checking and making a little effort to research basic media guides for dealing with LGBTI issues (e.g. http://www.glaad.org/reference and the Media Reference Guide which can be easily found and downloaded). Looking forward to greater inclusiveness and understanding from ABC! Thanks for bringing this subject matter into the public light, and may you continue to do so.